A brush fire outside Yosemite National Park in California has forced the shut down of a major highway and the evacuation of a resort town near the Nevada border, officials said.
The Inn fire ignited on Thursday afternoon and had burned more than 500 acres near Mono Lake, Calif., in Inyo National Forest by late Friday morning, according to Cal Fire, the state’s fire fighting agency.
Mono City, an unincorporated community of roughly 200 people northwest of the lake, was under evacuation on Friday afternoon. The Mono Inn restaurant and Tioga Lodge hotel, two popular establishments, had also been evacuated, according to the Mono County Sheriff’s Office. The restaurant and the hotel sit just off Highway 395, the major artery in the region that was expected to remain closed through Friday afternoon, officials said.
Highway 395 was closed mainly because of safety reasons, Lisa Cox, a spokeswoman for Inyo National Forest, told the local news organization Sierra Wave Media on Friday. “Power lines have burned, power lines are down across the highway,” she said. “We have to helicopter power line poles in.”
The fire was spreading slowly through a landscape of mostly sagebrush in a northern direction toward Mono City. Chloe Castillo, a spokeswoman for Cal Fire, said firefighting efforts were focused on containing the fire’s north end. “It’s creeping and smoldering in that area,” she said.
Helicopters were pulling water from Mono Lake and Lundy Lake on Thursday and Friday and dropping it on the flames, Ms. Cox said. Air tankers have also been assisting and releasing flame retardant, but not over Mono Lake and Mill Creek.
“This fire has the potential to get larger and it has the potential to move, so we’re trying to make as much progress as quickly as we can today,” Ms. Cox said on Friday.
Mono Lake is a popular tourist destination and had been expecting an influx of visitors for Memorial Day weekend. The Inn fire is one of several brush fires that have erupted in California in the last week as the weather has begun to warm.
Bodie State Historic Park, a gold-mining ghost town about 20 miles northeast of Mono City, is another popular draw to the area. It remained open on Friday.
“We definitely are getting smoke impacts,” said Matthew Maloney, a senior park aide. “It’s very hazy today and you can definitely smell the smoke today.”
Mr. Maloney says Memorial Day weekend has been one of the busiest times of the year for the park.
The fire broke out Thursday afternoon not far from the highway, just south of Mono City, amid dry, blustery weather. Winds up to 35 miles per hour pushed wildfire flames.
“It’s not as gusty today,” said Mark Deutschendorf, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service office in Reno, Nev. “Looks like one site near the fire is gusting to 17 miles per hour.”
Light winds are expected to continue overnight and into Saturday morning with winds of 20 m.p.h. or less. Potential thunderstorms on Saturday afternoon could bring erratic winds.
Orlando Mayorquín is a Times reporter covering California. He is based in Los Angeles.
Amy Graff is a Times reporter covering weather, wildfires and earthquakes.
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